Hopeful Again
by QueenSchnee
Summary: written for a friend, but basically another 'Ace survived Marineford' fic because hey- if Pell can survive a bomb to the face, then what's a magma fist to the chest? Anyways, a fic in which Ace and Luffy learn that Sabo was not actually dead and Sabo tries to beat up an injured person (only to be beat up by Koala instead). Ace-centric but with an ASL focus


Summary: Another 'Ace survives Marineford' fic. In which Ace learns that Sabo was not, in fact, dead and Koala has to keep Sabo from beating up an injured person. Ace-centric but with an ASL focus

Written specifically for a friend, but with the general idea of 'fuck it- if Pell and Conis' dad survived their arcs then I can bullshit something for Ace'; at the same time, I wanted to keep things as close to the canon timeline as possible, so while Ace lives, Luffy still wants to train for 2 years. In the end writing thins whole thing turned out to be more fun than I had expected!

* * *

When Ace opens his eyes, all he sees is a dark room that's just barely illuminated by a single window. He turns his head to the side and sees a few machines with glowing buttons and panels. The only sounds in the room are the pumps and whirrs and steady beeps of the machines. Beyond that there's nothing that he can really make out about the place. It's unfamiliar to him, but before Ace can panic about waking up in a strange place, he falls back into a deep sleep.

0o0o0

The next time that Ace wakes up, he sees a man that he doesn't recognize at all; staring at the machines with his hands folded over his chest. Ace wants to ask who the hell the guy is, but he can't make a sound and he realizes that it's is because there's a tube going down his throat. He tries moving his hands to grab at the tube, but there's a soft, thick cloth tied around his wrists keeping them tied down; there are even needles stuck into his arms, each leading to strung up blood bags and bags of other, less identifiable, fluids. His confusion immediately turns to panic and the machines must reflect that because they start making more noise as well. The man turns away from the machines and looks down at him. His eyes look down at Ace like he's something that's only mildly interesting before he moves to pin Ace's upper body to the bed. He looks like a weak sort of guy, but the force that he uses to keep Ace down on the bed is anything but.

"While I'm glad to see that you've regained consciousness Fire Fist-ya," the man says, grunting a little. "I'd appreciate if you'd just keep still."

And Ace slowly stops moving, more due to the sudden pain blooming in his chest than the man's words. His heart, which had seemed sluggish before, is beating so hard that it almost feels like getting punched in the chest with a haki infused fist. And the pain must show on his face because the man asks, "Is it your heart?"

Ace nods weakly, starting to sweat. The man nods and reaches over to a side table.

"That's what I expected. This should make that pain go away for a while." He says, holding up a bottle of clear liquid. With a practiced hand, he sticks the syringe's needle through the top of it, and pulls back the stopper until the syringe is filled. Setting the bottle down, he turns Ace's closest arm over and sticks the syringe in, pushing down the stopper until all of the chemical are inside of his body. Then he pulls it out, quickly and efficiently, and disposes of the needle.

"I was told by Ivankov that your treatment would be complete in another day or so." The man says as the edges of Ace's vision blurs and darkens. "After that you'll be put on bed rest, but I'll see about removing the tubes and needles then. Until then-" The man continues to speak until fewer and fewer of his words make sense and Ace falls asleep once again.

0o0o0

The third time that Ace wakes up, it's finally to a familiar face.

Marco is sitting next to his bed, slumped over and snoring pretty loudly. "Marco." Ace says, his voice coming out as a dry whisper. Marco shifts a little in his sleep- and his snore turns into a grunt- but doesn't move otherwise, so Ace, after looking down and seeing that his arms were no longer tied down, slowly reaches over and grabs the edge of the man's jacket and tugs on it. The lack of strength behind his grip is frustrating, but as weak as it is, the pressure does the trick and Marco jerks awake.

Ace watches the man blink a few times before he sees the recognition in his eyes. "Ace!" Marco says in a voice that cracks. He stands up so quickly that he topples over his chair, but he doesn't even look back at it. Instead his arms are instantly around Ace's shoulders and Ace is pulled into a hug that's half suffocating. "Thank God, thank God," Marco whispers again and again against his ear and Ace feels the tears well up in his eyes. He's tired and his memory is a bit foggy, but he's also glad to finally see a familiar face in this unfamiliar place.

He hugs back as hard as he can, which admittedly isn't very hard, until Marco finally pulls away, wiping at his eyes. "You stupid bastard." Marco says, the venom in his voice dulled by the tears still in his eyes. "If you weren't on bed rest then I'd beat the shit out of you. What the hell were you even thinking, yoi?"

At his words Ace finally remembers why he's here. It had been on the edge of his mind but now he remembers everything; Luffy unlocking his cuffs, Akainu talking shit about Pops, and then going to attack Luffy, and-

And-

"How?" Ace asks, his voice creaking and his throat burning from the effort.

Marco snorts and gestures at the door. "It was those two, Law and Ivankov. Ivankov kept you alive- just barely, mind you- and Law patched you up and helped you escape in that sub of his." Both names are unfamiliar, but Ace nods slowly anyway before remembering, "And Luffy?" He'd thrown himself in front of Luffy to shield him from Akainu, but shit- what if something had happened to him?

Marco calms his frantic nerves immediately by saying, "Last time I saw him? Sleeping. He needs his rest as much as you do, yoi." And Ace lets out a breath, feeling almost boneless with relief. Thank God for that.

"The last thing I remember," Ace says slowly, his voice still creaking, "Was Luffy on the ground behind me. I couldn't-" how could he explain himself? He'd never been one to run when there were people behind him that he'd needed to protect; it just wasn't in his nature. But at the same time, it had nearly gotten him killed this time around. "Marco- I'm so sorry…"

Marco looks at him like he's an idiot, but thankfully moves on. "Anyways, how do you feel, yoi?" he asks and Ace takes a few seconds to see. His body feels heavy and he's still tired- so, so tired- but he can still feel his arms and legs and wiggle his fingers toes, and he's still alive and breathing so he considers it a win this time.

"Like shit." Ace says honestly, "But I'll live." And just saying it out loud feels important. It strengthens his resolve. He's going to live. "But what happened? Afterwards?" he asks.

Marco immediately slumps a little more, like a heavy weight's been put on his shoulders, but he sighs and tells Ace everything that happened after Akainu hit him. He tells him about his little brother breaking down with Ace in his arms, and Ivankov just barely being able to keep him alive ("According to Ivankov, whatever technique he used to keep you from dropping dead right then and there took so many years off of your life that you'll be very, very lucky if you even make it into your 40's. So there's that."). Then about how he and Vista had held off Akainu long enough for Ivankov to keep Ace breathing and move him away, but also how Akainu had still managing to attack Luffy. Ace seizes up in fear when he hears that while Jinbei had taken most of the blow, Luffy had still taken a pretty heavy hit to the chest.

"I told you- he's fine now." Marco says when he sees the fear on Ace's face. "That Law did a good job on him." He says before continuing on. Akainu, he says, had been going in for the kill when Whitebeard had finally stepped in. Any joy that Ace got from hearing about Pops putting Akainu through the ringer was immediately snuffed out by the news of his death.

Even though he wants to deny the idea- say that it's impossible for a man like Whitebeard to die- he can tell that it's the truth simply by the pain in Marco's eyes; as if the man would have lied about something like this. "The old man went out protecting his sons. I doubt that he would have wanted to go any other way Ace." Marco tells him bluntly and Ace nods a little because it's true. He just couldn't imagine his old man dying a peaceful, or quiet, death.

"So, then that Akainu bastard did it?" Ace asks and the look on Marco's face turns cold and harsh.

"No. It was Teach- that bastard." Marco growls, sounding more hostile than Ace has ever heard him sound. Ace listens in shock as Marco moves on to that portion of the story. From Teach having his men shoot Pops like a coward, to somehow stealing his devil fruit, Ace listens to it all with a mixture of horror and pure anger growing in his gut. "We still have no idea how something like that is even possible, but somehow that bastard did it." Marco says and Ace doesn't respond. He's too wrapped up in his anger.

He should have killed Teach when he had the chance, he thinks as he clenches his fists hard enough to make them bleed. He should have watched Teach closer when the man was working under him. All of the things that he should have done fill his head.

The warm weight of Marco's hand on his head brings him out of his thoughts and he looks up to see the older man staring down at him. "We'll deal with Teach this as a family this time Ace," Marco tells him sternly; already knowing what's one Ace's mind. And it's enough to make Ace cry again because he won't make the same mistake twice. He knows that Teach needs to be taken down, but he won't throw away his life this time to do it.

His tears wear him out and all too soon he has to lay down again. As frustrating as it is, feeling so weak, he can't deny that his talk with Marco was exhausting.

Amused by his grumbling and groaning about it, Marco just ruffles his hair. "I'd get all the sleep I could if I were you. Once Luffy hears that you're up, I doubt that any of us'll be strong enough to stop him from storming in here."

0o0o0

Marco's right of course. Sometime after midnight, the door to Ace's room flies open fast enough that it leaves a dent in the wall behind it, and before Ace can even tell what's going on, Luffy's on the bed with him, and has Ace in a bone-crushing hug. Which Ace returns after he gets Luffy to stop crushing his ribs so much.

It's dark outside so he can barely see his younger brother's face, but he doesn't need to be able to see it clearly to see the raw emotion there. Although there are tears streaming down his face and snot trailing out of his nose, Luffy still looks impossibly happy, and Ace knows that he, himself, doesn't look any better. He had really thought that the last time he'd ever see his brother would be on that battlefield.

So he holds Luffy as tightly as he can and ruffles his hair and just tries to keep it together. He doesn't know how long the two of them stay wrapped together like that, but once Ace is too tired to remain sitting upright, they curl up together in Ace's bed instead. It's a little too small for two grown people, but neither of them complain.

The two of them immediately fall into quiet conversation and Ace finally asks where they are. "Amazon Lily?" he repeats. It's an island that he's never heard of.

"Yeah, Hammock's letting us stay until we get better." Luffy says with a wide smile. "Jinbei says that since she's a Warlord, no one will think to look for us here."

"Jinbei? He's here too then?" Ace asks before catching onto the other thing that Luffy said. "Wait! Warlord? You don't mean Boa Hancock do you?" he asks, vaguely remembering the woman from her prison visit. Although she had warned him about his brother breaking into Impel Down, it still seemed strange to consider that she might be an ally.

Luffy nods. "She's kinda weird but really cool too!" he says with a laugh, and Ace just smiles. His brother always had the oddest way of winning everyone over. He couldn't say that he was surprised that it would even extend to people like Warlords.

The conversation continues for hours as the two of them just bask in each other's presence. Luffy tells him more about his crew, which has gained another three people since their meeting in Alabasta- including a skeleton of all things!- while Ace tells Luffy a few of his own stories from before Teach's mutiny. It was the conversation that they'd never gotten to have in Alabasta, but Ace is glad that they can have it at all. From what he remembered about Luffy's crew, and from how Luffy spoke about them, they were all nice, if not strange, people, but he was glad that Luffy had people who truly cared for him and would do anything for him. His brother was loyal to a stupid degree so it was only fitting that the rest of his crew would be too.

"Where are they now?" he asks, and Luffy immediately shut down a little.

"I don't know." He admits. "We were all the way in Sabondy when we ended up being separated and now I don't know where any of them are." Luffy sounds pained to admit it. "I wanted to get back to them, but then I heard that you were going to be executed and-" Luffy shrugs, and Ace feels his heart break for his little brother. "I also got into a fight with Jinbei today." Luffy admits.

"Jinbei? Why?" Ace asks with a cocked eyebrow. Jinbei was a nice guy- he would have expected him and Luffy to get along well.

"Because," Luffy sighs and pushes his face down into the pillow. "I'm too weak Ace. I can't do anything." His shoulders start to shake, and Ace wants to immediately comfort him, but he also knows that this is important for Luffy. "I couldn't do anything against Kizaru or Kuma in Sabondy and I couldn't have gotten through Impel Down without Hammock, or Bon-chan, or Iva-chan there to help." Luffy's shoulders shake even more. "I couldn't even save you properly or protect my crew- and I want to be the Pirate King?!"

Ace watches Luffy with careful eyes. While he had never been the type of brother to beat up everyone who ever hurt Luffy- after all, how could Luffy learn to fight for himself if Ace babied him like that?- but he still wants to crush everyone who put these feelings in Luffy's heart. Luffy was supposed to always be lighthearted and cheerful dammit, not drowning in self-doubt.

But he also knew that this sort of pain wasn't entirely bad. He had no idea what Luffy had faced after he'd left home, but he did know that his brother was stronger than this. He knew that Luffy could overcome any challenge that he put his mind to, so instead of coddling him, he asks,

"And where does the fight with Jinbei come in?" he tries his best to sound patient and supportive- something he'd had so much trouble being when he was younger.

Luffy shrugs. "Jinbei just said a lot of things that I didn't like and I tried to punch him." He wrinkles up his nose childishly. "Jinbei's pretty strong too, so I lost of course, but then he reminded me-"

"Reminded you of what?"

"Of everything that I still had to fight for." Luffy says, some of his smile returning. "Nami, Zoro, Usopp, Franky, Chopper, Robin, Sanji, and Brook-" He says while holding up his fingers, "I want to get stronger for all of them, so that's what I'll do. I'll get strong enough that nobody will ever take my nakama from me like that again." Luffy says with conviction and Ace knows that he'll do it, because that's what his little brother does.

So he just chuckles and ruffles Luffy's hair.

0o0o0

Rayleigh shows up a few days later.

Ace is visited by several other people before that, including Law, Marco, and a few of the other Whitebeard Commanders.

Law's visits are short and to the point- always just there it make sure that neither he nor Luffy are about to drop dead before leaving again. Any attempts on Ace's part to thank the man are always brushed off. "No need to thank me when I could always turn into an enemy in the future." Is always his response. When Ace tries to ask why the man helped save their lives in the first place- because he and Luffy would surely be dead otherwise- his response is always some variation of 'it would be boring otherwise'. So Ace learns to stop asking him about anything other than his treatment pretty quickly.

Marco and the others who can visit him (Vista and Izo) always cheer him up more than anything else because although all of them have lost their Captain, they're not a crew that will just roll over that easily. Most of their visits include just talking about next steps for the crew, and although Ace knows that he'll be out of commission for a while, he's still glad to be involved at all. Unfortunately, due to the fact that Hancock can't just be seen with Whitebeard's men just coming into her territory, they're the only ones that can come to the island. But he feels the same way when Jinbei visits, as he's just glad that the older man made it out of this whole mess alive. He even makes sure to thank the other man for taking care of Luffy as well; although Jinbei admits that Luffy grew on him rather quickly.

Luffy, meanwhile, is his constant companion. They get treatments at the same time, eat at the same time, and do pretty much everything else at the same time. It's a little much at times, but you couldn't pay Ace any amount of money that would make him tell Luffy to go. And the truth is, he wants to be around his brother as much as Luffy wants to be around him.

The day Rayleigh shows up a few days after Luffy's fight with Jinbei. Ace, after falling asleep with Luffy, had decided that he was well enough to walk around a little bit. The area that he'd been kept in was one of a few small huts near the coastline of Amazon Lily. Since he was a man, he wasn't allowed to go any further inland but Ace didn't really mind.

But he'd also gotten a chance to meet the head of Amazon Lily herself, Boa Hancock, again. She was every bit as tall and intimidating as he'd remembered her being, and he had been shocked to learn that she was also pretty damn head over heels for his little brother too. There had been something equally funny and strange about watching her go from 'Empress who looked at him like he was beneath her' to someone who was hiding behind a wagon of food, too shy to even meet Luffy's eyes. Granted, she was a little better towards him now than she'd been at the prison, but that was only because she considered herself his new sister in law. Which was…weird to say the least, but hey, if Luffy ever actually agreed to marry her, then he wouldn't object.

A little bit after Hancock arrived, however, there was a giant splash and the dying cry of a Sea King in the nearby water and that was when the Dark King Rayleigh himself had stepped onto the beach. Ace, having never met the man himself, had had no idea who he was, but Luffy had greeted him like old friends, and even Hancock and her sisters had spared a few moments for the man.

"I'm glad to see that you're well as well Ace-kun." Rayleigh says to him with a tip of his head and Ace nods back. He still has the bandages wrapped around his chest, but thankfully he's getting better. He was still a bit foggy on what Ivankov and Law had done to him, but he knew that he owed his life to Law transplanting new organs from some rather unwilling marine captives into him. His heart, lungs, and a whole mess of other organs were donors. From there Ivankov had kicked his body into overdrive so that it would force itself to become compatible to the transplants and then work on healing itself. So while he was getting stronger and able to do more things on his own, he knew that it would be a while before he was well enough to get back into the swing of being a pirate again.

As it turns out though, Rayleigh is there to talk to Luffy. He agrees that Luffy could use some time to get stronger and before Ace knows it, the man has a plan to spread the word to Luffy's crew, and that night they're sailing off to put their plan into action.

All the while Ace is just brimming with pride over how much his little brother's grown from being the little snot nosed brat that followed Ace everywhere to a strong pirate. It's honestly amazing.

In the meantime, he's left with Jinbei and when he gets too tired to properly keep up the conversation he heads back to his little hut and sleeps.

0o0o0

One night, when Luffy's still away, he's woken up by a knock on the door, and when he opens it he sees a strange Kuja woman standing there. "The Snake Empress wants to see you down by the beach." She says in an almost bored voice before walking away, without waiting to see if Ace would follow. He tries to move with a bit of urgency, but she's fast enough that he nearly loses her before they make it to the beach. But before they even get down to the beach, Ace hears people shouting.

"-you'll get yourself turned into stone because you're too much of an idiot to-!"

"I'm not waiting here any longer Koala! Where the hell is he?!" The person shouting is clearly irate, but that's not what makes Ace's heart stutter and his breath catch.

"Hey! Don't talk to our Snake Empress like that!" A woman shouts and several others pitch in. Ace makes his way to the beach to see two groups gathered there. At the head of one of the groups is Boa Hancock, standing with her back straight and looking incredibly intimidating with her snake wrapped around her shoulders. Behind her, a bunch of women are standing with bows drawn, glaring at the other group.

Standing at the head of that the second group is a petite woman with orange-brown hair and a blond man in a top hat. The blond's face is so familiar that Ace thinks for a second that all of this is a dream. Besides the longer hair and the burn up the side of his face, it's the exact same face; albeit looking angrier than Ace can ever remember seeing him. "Sabo?" he calls out, half afraid that this weird dream (although maybe it's a nightmare?) will end.

The blond's eyes find his and he shouts, "Ace!" before marching forward, so intent that not even Hancock tries to stop him. Sabo marches up to him and grabs him in a hug that's so tight that Ace can feel his ribs creaking. Then as suddenly Sabo pulls away and grabs his head. "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Sabo shouts loud enough that Ace's ears would have been ringing if his head wasn't already hurting.

"Ouch!" Ace shouts back before aiming a punch at Sabo's ribs. "That hurts you asshole!" he shouts as his fist connect and Sabo groans from the sudden blow. The grip on Ace's head eases but Sabo immediately puts him in a headlock.

"Shut up!" Sabo says, but Ace isn't going down that easily. Fighting like he hasn't had to in years, Ace catches the back of one of Sabo's legs and sweeps it forward while throwing his weight on top of Sabo. It send them both to the ground, with Ace landing on top, and both scrambling to get better grips on each other. Ace knows that he's not supposed to fight, but his best friend comes back from the dead and then picks a fight with him? Like hell he's not going to do something!

But before he can hit Sabo again, he's hit in the head by someone else and then pulled off of Sabo. "Will both of you give it a rest!" The red head from before shouts, looking like she's about to hit them again. "And Sabo! What the hell are you doing fighting an injured person!" she says as she pulls at the blond's cheeks. "Did all of your common sense just fly out the window on the way over here?!"

Ace watches, a little stunned, as she tears into him. He also notices Hancock staring at their little group, looking unimpressed. Behind them, the second group of people, many of them wearing animals masks, watch the whole scene calmly; like it happened every day.

"So I take it that you know him, brother?" Hancock asks in a bored drawl and Ace nods. He's not used to being called that by her, but since she's convinced that they'll be related through marriage one day he really doesn't think he can stop her.

"Yeah, he's my friend." He says and Hancock looks back at her group and nods at them.

"Well then, make sure that they don't head anymore inland than this, and destroy the compass that you used to get here." She says to the second group before taking her warriors and leaving without a second glance. Ace almost wants to tell her to wait, or to come back, because otherwise he'd be left alone with a friend that he'd thought was dead and a bunch of other people he'd never met before. But he doesn't and before he knows it, it's just them left.

Ace takes his time just staring at Sabo while the red head continues to berate him. He feels a hand on his shoulder and looks up to see someone wearing a kangaroo mask. The person, a woman with warm eyes, removes it and gives Ace a small smile. "You must be Ace right? Sabo's brother?" Ace nods and she claps him on the back, being careful to aim for a less bandaged part. "Well, it's nice meeting you Ace! I'm Patty. Unfortunately the rest of the group and I will be returning to the ship for some much needed rest. Sabo-san and Koala-san should stop fighting soon, but when they do, please let Sabo know that he's not welcome back onto the ship for a while." Patty huffs. "Do you know how hard it is to find an eternal log pose- much less one that points to this island especially? Plus forcing us to make a 10 day trip in less than a week- what a tryant!"

Ace is glad that his feedback apparently isn't needed for this conversation because the speed at which Patty talks makes him doubt that he could even get a word in edge-wise. He nods along anyways.

"Anyways," Patty stands up, "congrats on not being dead." Patty says like it's really an achievement before waving the rest of her group over to where Ace assumes their ship is.

Ace watches them go, not really focusing on Sab anymore until the woman from before lays her hand on his other shoulder. He jumps a little, but turns to look at her. "I'm sorry that Sabo's such an idiot," she says with a sigh before helping him up, "But are you ok?" she looks him over a little. "You're in one piece at least."

"I'm fine." Ace says easily. "And you are?"

"Koala." She gives him a little salute. "I work with Sabo." Koala has a friendly smile, although it dims a little on the last part. "I'm sorry though, he's not usually this quick to fight."

Sabo meanwhile has pink cheeks from where she'd pinched him, but he brushes off his hat and shoves it onto his head. "Shut up Koala. He just picked a fight with an admiral. Of course I'm going to be mad about that!" He says before adding. "Although it is good to see you again Ace." He grins and Ace notices that he has all of his teeth. For some reason, he'd still expected his friend to have his gap. "It's been what? 10 years? I gotta say though, I never expected to see you like this!"

And Ace, who was never one for being subtle when dealing with the people that he cared about, opens up with, "I thought that you were dead."

It's blunt enough that both Sabo and Koala immediately stop and give him confused looks. "I thought that you were dead." Ace says again, more for himself than them. "You bastard!" he doesn't realize that he's shouting until his throat hurts. "I thought that you were dead! Why didn't you ever come back?" He wants to punch Sabo in the face, but before he can take more of a step forwards, Koala's in front of him, muttering 'Not again' under her breath.

She holds him back with not too much effort and he can't but help but yell, "We all thought that you were dead and it turns out that you're what? Sailing around like an asshole with a stupid napkin wrapped around your neck?!"

Sabo looks confused but still makes an offended noise. "It's a cravat!" he hisses and Koala rolls her eyes and Ace wants to strangle him with his cravat. "And what the hell do you mean? When did you think that I was dead?"

Ace makes a disgusted noise of his own. "One of Dadan's men saw you! Your boat was blown up when you were 10- idiot!" he yells because he doesn't know what else to say.

Sabo's eyes widen in recognition of that time. "What? I didn't die!" He says it like it's obvious, which it kind of is now. "Sure some asshole shot my boat-" (he still remembers it well, the confusion turned horror when he realized that that guy really meant to kill him) "But I didn't die. I was floating in the water for a while but then I was picked up by Dragon. He brought me into the Revolutionaries." Sabo says and Ace finally stops his struggling.

He stares at Sabo for a good while, just thinking over his words, before sighing. "Koala, you can let go of me now."

"You're not going to try and fight again, are you?" She asks, clearly tired of getting in the middle of them.

"Only if he does something stupid." Ace says back just as dryly, and Koala lets go of him. He walks over to Sabo with his back straight and his head held high and his fists clenched. Ace looks like he still wants to fight and Sabo looks wary, but Ace just throws his arms around Sabo's shoulders, hugging him for all he's worth. The tears aren't there yet, but they're on their way.

"Uh? Ace?" Sabo asks.

"Shut the hell up Sabo." Ace says, his voice muffled by Sabo's shoulder. "I just learned that the brother that I thought was dead for 10 years is still alive so just shut the fuck up and let me hug you."

He hears Sabo laugh next to his head. "Man, you're still a bastard." Sabo says before grabbing him just as rightly. "A stupid, stupid bastard."

And if they both start crying? Well, it's not like Koala would say anything.

0o0o0

Sometime early in the morning, just early enough that the sun is just barely beginning to shine, Sabo tells Ace, "I never would have stayed away if I had known."

The two are pressed back to back but Ace has a good idea of what his face looks like. He just snorts pushes his face into his pillow some more. "Shut up Sabo."

"I was doing a mission for Dragon in Celestwave and I had thought- we'd all thought, that with Whitebeard there…" Sabo trails off and Ace sits up so that he can hit Sabo with his pillow.

"I said shut up." He says again. "Where you were and why you didn't come- that sort of thing doesn't matter. I didn't even want Whitebeard to show up." Ace admits. "Everything was my fault anyways, so don't act like forcing yourself into the matter would have helped a tll."

"But even Luffy showed up." Sabo says, being ridiculously stubborn about the whole thing.

"And I sure as hell didn't ask him to be there." Ace says. He doubted that he'd ever forget seeing Luffy falling out of the sky with an assload of escaped prisoners from Impel Down. His brother was entirely too unpredictable. "Speaking of Luffy though- the poor kid's gonna lose it when he sees you." Ace smirks.

"Really?" And now Sabo sits up, looking more nervous that Ace would have thought. "Like I said, even he tried to save you- do you really think that he won't be mad at me?" After all, he could have- should have- pushed harder. He should have forced the issue, even if Dragon had disapproved.

And Ace can't help it- he laughs a little. "Oh my God- are you forgetting who we're talking about?" He shoves Sabo's shoulder. "I know that you've been gone for ten years, but trust me- Luffy would be angrier at you for eating his food than this."

"Ace!" Sabo huffs. "I'm being serious here. After knowing that he thought that I was dead too- I'm seriously worried about how I'm supposed to face him again." Sabo shoves Ace back, only for Ace to smack him in the face with his pillow.

"Sabo, I spent several years listening to Luffy whine and complain about how much of a better brother you were. Trust me- he'll be over the moon." And Sabo feels his cheeks heat up a little. While of course he'd missed both Ace and Luffy over the last ten years, their time together had been so short, and their separation so fast that Sabo had actually worried about the two of them forgetting him, that even hearing something as little as that made him happy.

"So what you're saying then," he says slowly, "Is that I'm the better brother right?" he smirks at Ace, only to be hit again.

"Shut up you ass!"

0o0o0

And if Sabo had thought that Ace had been kidding about Luffy's reaction, then he was proven wrong just a couple of days later. While Ace had thought this his own reaction to Sabo actually being alive had been a little over the top, Luffy's is much, much worse. Luffy comes back to Amazon Lily a few days later, looking proud of himself, but one look at Sabo and Luffy goes from smiling to crying in an instant.

"Sabo! I thought you were dead!" Luffy wails, rubbing his snot and tears on Sabo's once clean jacket. Ace, meanwhile, remains unhelpful and just laughs at him from his bed.

"Nope. I'm still pretty alive." Sabo says, rubbing at Luffy's head. Now, seeing Luffy's reaction for himself, he feels a little silly doubting Ace in the first place. Still, he thinks with a wince, he had forgotten quite how loud Luffy could be.

Ace, meanwhile, kicks Luffy in the butt. "Let go of him already, ya crybaby." Ace says like he hadn't been crying himself. Luffy doesn't even bother answering him and clings to Sabo even more tightly with his rubbery arms. Sabo squeaks in pain, and sends a glare over at Ace, who gives him a cheeky grin and shrug in return.

"So Luffy- what are you going to do now?" Ace asks once Luffy stops clinging to Sabo like an octopus. "Go look for your crew?" Sabo looks between them, questioningly, but doesn't ask.

Luffy shakes his head. "Nope. I decided that I'm going to go train with Rayleigh." And Luffy looks excited by the idea. "In two years we'll meet up again, but until then I'll focus on getting stronger."

"Wow," Ace whistles a little. "Maybe then you might actually be a challenge for me."

To which Luffy sticks out his tongue. "Shut up Ace! When I'm your age I'll totally be able to kick your ass!" he looks to Sabo with shining eyes. "Right, Sabo?"

And Sabo laughs behind his hand. "I'd like to see that." He says before adding. "I've gotten pretty strong myself though. I think I could take you too Ace." Sabo says with a grin and Ace just smirks at both of them.

"Give me a few months," Ace promises, "And then I'll kick both of your asses." And as the three of them start bickering, it feels like old times again, and even though so many things had gone wrong for him, Ace starts to feel hopeful again.

* * *

Sometimes we all just need to write cheesy af fics I think. Anyways, I tried to explain all of my ideas about how Ace could have survived here, but it all pretty much comes back to, Pell survived a bomb to the face, so anyone else gets a free pass.


End file.
